Tuesday, May 10, 2016

TWD - Tarte Tropezienne

For this week's Tuesday with Dorie, I have made Tarte Tropezienne. This is like a French version of the German Bienenstich, but with nubbly pearl sugar on top. I adore pastry cream and am partial to a Bienenstich, so it was a no brainer for me to make this one. I even splashed out on the pearl sugar at a specialty cake decorating shop to ensure that my Tarte Tropezienne looked elegant and authentic. The Tarte supposedly received its name when Brigitte Bardot tasted it while filming in Saint-Tropez and suggested that the baker give it a special name.

The Tarte Tropezienne tasted as good as I had hoped - crispy light bread layers sandwiched together with light, creamy pastry cream, and nubbly sugar on top to give it a bit of crunch.

The downside to making this is that it is almost a whole day's effort. I made my dough at 7.30am and only got to taste it at 2.30pm, and even then I cheated a bit with timeframes because I didn't want to wait another 2 hours after filling the tarte to try a piece. There is a 2-3 hour initial rise, then 30 minutes in the freezer, then 2 hours in the fridge, the pastry cream needs 2-3 hours to chill, baking time is only half an hour, but even after cooling and filling the tarte, you were supposed to wait another 2 hours while it chilled in the fridge.

Nah - couldn't wait, and I cut straight into it. It was good! I absolutely adored this, but in the future, I will most likely buy my Bienenstich/Tarte Tropezienne and appreciate how much work went into making it.To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

12 comments:

Yours looks beautiful! I suspect that I'll only make this once, as well. I think that making this on a day when one is having people over is the only way to make sure it doesn't get sampled too soon. But then, I know I'd probably be exhausted from the day-long project by the time the guests arrived...

"I made my dough at 7.30am and only got to taste it at 2.30pm" THIS! I was on my feet ALL day because of this! But it did mean I got to bake and cook around it so I was very productive! I loved that I made this myself!

Yes. Knowing that a brioche has alot of rest time (from having made brioche rolls throughost the night for Thanksgiving one year... never again), I chose to start this the day before, through the chilling phase, and then finish it the next day. All in one day is intense, a little like Greattach British Baker Off!

I made the dough the day before and left it in the fridge for the second rise. Bake and make the pastry cream the next day. Didn't seem as daunting with that schedule. What a good-looking cake you've made!

Oh my word I should not ever ever ever learn about Tarte Tropezienne as I know that I would eat more than one thin slice of this one...these sorts of desserts just call my name way too loudly...a siren call!!! Yours looks fantastic.